‘X-Men: Apocalypse’ Concept Art Reveals a Different Vision

Earlier this week fans were treated to a look at the Apocalypse that might have been when early concept art for the titular “X-Men: Apocalypse” villain was released. The concept art, posted below, shows a much different – and some might argue more comic-accurate – version of the character.

While in some ways the concept art does more accurately mirror the comics, it isn’t an exact copy of the iconic villain’s comic book look. Here, the character is clad in black – not blue – and his face looks much more like the pale visage of a lifeless corpse.

When early set photos were released – showing the character with a very purple appearance, mostly due to lighting and a lack of color correction – many fans took to mocking the character as an Ivan Ooze rip-off. Had Fox gone with this concept, it probably wouldn’t have done anything to curb early attempts to mock the character. Instead he would probably just have been compared to a Borg drone instead of a Power Ranger baddie.

Many elements from the concept art did survive to the character’s ultimate on screen appearance, albeit heavily modified. The overall design of the armor seems to have remained fairly consistent, just changed to blue to more accurately reflect the character’s comic book look and with some faux Egyptian designs incorporated into it.

The biggest change appears to be with the lines around the character’s mouth being much more subdued and natural looking.

Almost nothing in film makes it from concept art to the screen unchanged. That’s why its called concept art. While Bryan Singer probably made the right decision in having the original concept modified to better fit the overall feel of the film – this costume could have run the risk of looking like cosplay had it been fully realized on screen – it does offer an interesting look at the sort of direction in which the character could have gone.